Word: alchemist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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THERE ARE NO mistakes in this Alchemist no gimmicks or compromises or implicit apologies for one of the classic warhorses of English comedy. It won't have you rolling in the aisles, though it probably wasn't Jonson's intention to get that sort of response--he wanted to instruct as well as amuse. He placed himself squarely in the center of his society, defending true values against all comers front all directions--Puritan and libertine, meek fool and overbearing lout. He played the down-to-earth Aristotle to Shakespeare's Plato, attacking anyone who deviated from his golden mean...
This production of The Alchemist is one of the few Harvard productions that have grown out of academic work. Mark Mosca, who directed it, took English 125 "Elizabethanand Jacobean Dramatists," and went to the Harvard Dramatic Club with a proposal to do Jonson's masterpiece, Bartholomew Fair, Bartholomew Fair is not nearly as well-known as The Alchemist, and is much more difficult to stage, to the HDC chose the sure-fire-alternative. The HDC has been rewarded with packed houses, but settled for an evening with no surprises for anyone--with a good cast, perceptive direction, and an appreclative...
...Alchemist is based on the principle that "there's one born every minute." One by one a set of types troupes in to see the quack magician, Subtle, in search of it is they want--money, women, success. Dapper (Stephen Kolzak) is a boring dandy of an accountant who wants to be successful as a gambler; he winds up with a blindfold over his eyes, gingerbread stuffed in his mouth, and a dead mouse in his fist. Drugger (Denis Pelli) is an honest tob acconist who wants his shop to prosper; Pelli stammers and shuffles cringingly enough...
Pertinax Surly (John Carito) sees through the alchemist but doesn't manage to outsmart him. Carito is particularly good when dressed up as a Spanish hidalgo pretending not to understand Subtle when he tells him, "You are a scurvy whoreson dog," to which he replied. "Gracias, gracias." Tribulation (Walter Matherly) and Ananias (Sam Guckenheimer) are two whacked-out sectaries from the most extreme of the Protestant lunatic frings; Kastrll (Lee Silverman) is suitably boorish but sometimes so much so that you can't understand what he's saying. Dame Pliant (Andrea Stein) is a dumb blonde who turns...
...Alchemist is among Ben Jonson's best plays, and perhaps the most frequently produced. The play moves fast and is--with no exaggeration--as funny as over. A healthy kind of comedy and one that will always come in handy for your English generals or even, perhaps, LSATs. Directed by Mark Moece, who took English 125 last year and so probably Sunday and next weekend at 8 p.m. on the Loeb Mainstage...